American Horror Story 

An anthology series centering on different characters and locations, including a house with a murderous past, an insane asylum, a witch coven, a freak show, a hotel, a possessed farmhouse, and a cult.

Stars:

Lady Gaga, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett

Won 2 Golden Globes. Another 111 wins & 322 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Evan Peters	...	Jimmy Darling / ... 94 episodes, 2011-2018
Sarah Paulson	...	Lana Winters / ... 85 episodes, 2011-2018
Denis O'Hare	...	Spalding / ... 60 episodes, 2011-2016
Kathy Bates	...	Ethel Darling / ... 58 episodes, 2013-2018
Jessica Lange	...	Constance Langdon / ... 52 episodes, 2011-2019
Angela Bassett	...	Desiree Dupree / ... 47 episodes, 2013-2016
Lily Rabe	...	Sister Mary Eunice McKee / ... 46 episodes, 2011-2016
Frances Conroy	...	Gloria Mott / ... 45 episodes, 2011-2017
Cheyenne Jackson	...	Will Drake / ... 43 episodes, 2015-2018

Storyline

Both physical and psychological horrors affect a decomposing family, workers and residents of an insane asylum, a coven of witches, a cast of circus freaks, the employees and guests at a struggling hotel, a family who moved into a mysterious farmhouse, and the members of a small suburb in Michigan in this haunting anthology series, focusing on the themes of infidelity, sanity, oppression, discrimination, addiction, and exploitation.

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Plot Keywords:

anthology | hotel | insane asylum | roanoke | witch | 

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Taglines:

Be Of Like Mind.

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Instagram

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 October 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

American Horror Story: Asylum

Filming Locations:

Hidden Valley, Thousand Oaks, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision, Ryan Murphy Productions, 20th Century Fox Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

While in character as Spalding (Coven), Denis O'Hare refused to speak.

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Goofs

Frances Conroy ("Old" Moira O'Hara) is right-eye dominant. Many times you can see that she, as Moira, is focusing on the object she's looking at using her "blind" right eye instead of her left eye.

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Quotes

Dandy Mott: I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!

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Connections

Featured in Conan: Billy Eichner/Michael Bisping/Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real (2017)

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Soundtracks

Tainted Love
Written by Ed Cobb
Performed by Hannah Peel
Courtesy of Static Caravan

User Reviews

"AMERICAN BEAUTY" - With A Faceful of Acid...

If we have absorbed the lessons of what independent family dramas have taught us in the past few decades, what have we learned? That Father Has Never "Known Best", that the "Dreams of The Everyday Housewife" can be laced with resentment, disillusionment, fear and madness? That the placid, peaceful, tranquil picture of the all-American family we have believed in (and taught to uphold and emulate) by our own parents, has always been a facade for all kinds of dementia and dysfunction?

If this is true, then what Ryan Murphy has done is taken the clichés of everything from chief competitor Alan Ball's award-winning American BEAUTY and Stephen King's THE SHINING, put them on steroids and blended them together in his word processor. The result? American HORROR STORY, where the only thing more terrifying than a haunted house laden with secrets that rip people to shreds, are the secrets and lies infesting the lives of one family that threaten to rip THEM to shreds.

When a tragic miscarriage and an even more shattering act of infidelity threaten to tear apart their tenuous marriage, Ben Harmon (THE PRACTICE'S Dylan McDermott) and his wife Vivien (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS' Connie Britton) take their teenage daughter, Violet (Taissa Farmiga) and move away from their "house of horrors" to find a new start somewhere...ANYWHERE that they can put the noxious past behind them and at least try to have a go at tending to their gaping emotional wounds.

The place they choose - or maybe that chooses THEM - a run-down manse on the outskirts of L.A., turns out to be a real bargain, and though irredeemably creepy, does have an antiquated charm...if you're into murals that would give even Hieronymous Bosch nightmares.

In no short order, unsettling and strange characters - as much as the house itself is - begin to materialize and insinuate themselves into the Harmons' lives, whether they want them to or not: next-door neighbor Constance (Jessica Lange in a brilliant turn), whose demeanor suggests a deadly combo of Blanche DuBois, Norma Desmond and Gale Sondergaard's Black Widow; Frances Conroy (Ruth Fisher from SIX FEET UNDER) as the mysterious housekeeper, Moira, who appears to the rest of the family as one persona, while tempting Ben's weakness for "a taste of strange" with another more lascivious presence, (played by Alexandra Breckenridge); Larry Harvey (TRUE BLOOD alum Denis O'Hare), a horribly burned man who seems to be stalking Ben, and who has his own deadly history with the house and what lives there, and Constance's daughter, Adelaide, (Jamie Brewer), with Downs' Syndrome, yet who seems to have it more together - and knows more about the house - than anyone else around her.

Even Ben's practice as a psychologist is fraught with peril, with the introduction of a teen patient named Tate Langdon (Evan Peters), who has an easier time picking apart and savaging the weaknesses in Ben's emotional armor than Ben does in probing his inscrutable and infuriating new charge's troubled mind. Not to mention that his growing fascination/infatuation with Violet doesn't help things one little bit.

Many people have cried fowl about the show's penchant for relying heavily on old horror tropes and clichés, without even paying attention to how it has been taking said clichés and twisting them into newer and even more unsettling shapes than today's average hot mess passing itself off as a 'horror film.' Leave it to FX to allow Murphy and his team - much as they did with NIP/TUCK - the freedom to push the boundaries of where a horror-infused series can go, without the constraints that hog-tied many of the like-minded series that came before it, such as the ground-breaking TWIN PEAKS or American Gothic, (which wasn't anywhere near as well-written as this).

Two episodes in and I am already intrigued, grossed-out and frankly spooked by what I have seen so far. I just hope that the quality continues to get even better as plot lines and characters get darker and more deadly secrets are unearthed...